1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an apparatus and method for providing negative pressure at a wound site. In particular, but not exclusively, the present invention relates to apparatus for connecting a source of negative pressure to a wound site via a fluid communication path completed when a drape covering the wound site is pierced.
2. Background
Devices for the generation of negative pressure at the surface of skin have been used for many hundreds of years to treat animal and human bodies. For example the cupping technique (which relates to the positioning of a mouth of a rigid vessel containing hot air) is a well known technique. Spring powered syringes and suction cups are other mechanical techniques which have been used in the past for generating a vacuum on tissue. In common with cupping such techniques have, in the past, suffered from a very limited longevity of the therapy which can be applied. That is to say the duration of the negative pressure which can be maintained over a site of application has been limited.
To enable a more prolonged application of controlled negative pressure, powered systems, which include a vacuum generation source such as a pump of some type have been developed and many examples of such systems are used today for the management of wounds. However, many of these systems are not convenient for a user trying to provide a fluid communication path between the vacuum generation source and wound site.
For example, one technique which is known is to provide a tubular conduit from the vacuum generation source to a drape covering a wound site. The drape which acts as a sealed covering over the wound site is pinched around the tubular conduit which passes thereunder. An adhesive lower surface of the drape is secured to a peripheral region around a wound site and the tubular conduit. Whilst providing a technique which is straightforward to use such fastenings are prone to leakage paths being formed which can degrade the negative pressure applied at the wound site over time.
Other techniques have been proposed for dressing a wound site in a sealed manner which enables a negative pressure to be established over the wound and provides a fluid communication path through the drape. One such technique is to cut the drape, for example by pinching the drape and then cutting through a small portion of it. However, the size of opening so formed in the drape is difficult to control and if a small orifice is required such an orifice is prone to being lost or misaligned subsequent to cutting as it can be visually difficult to discern the location of the small cut opening after its generation.